Bacon Waffles

Sometimes I can be not so bright. Yes, I managed to pull off all A's for the whole year in school despite my busy schedule. But that's books. When it comes to life I can be a complete moron. Sorry, I'm not going to go into the details on my silly little blog that I would be surprised if anyone still reads.

One fairly stupid thing I managed to do recently was place a whole stick of butter in the butter dish. This would not be stupid in and of itself, but see, I've been dealing with some personal problems by cleaning. And so I was soft-scrubbing the counters and rearranging everything and I moved the butter dish to the opposite counter. Still not stupid per se. But then I agreed to work the rummage sale at church(so much fun!) and decided to make these pork chops. Which wouldn't have been stupid if I hadn't put the crock pot right in front of the butter dish. D'Oh!

Three days later I noticed that my nice stick of butter had turned into a melty ball of nonuseableness. I don't think that's a word, but you get my drift.

Now because I've been kind of blue lately and dealing with some not so nice people, the first thing I thought to do with my melted stick of butter was to turn it into some comfort food. And comfort food it was. I pulled out my little waffle maker, thawed some slices of bacon, tweaked a recipe from the Joy of Cooking and did my best Paula Deen impression. The furry sous chef was hopping up and down waiting for the drippy edges that I would throw at her. And there are now 6 waffles in the freezer waiting for another day that I might need them.

Bacon Waffles

adapted from the Joy of Cooking

1 3/4 cups all purpose-flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

1 Tbsp melted bacon fat

3 eggs

1/3 cup melted butter

1 1/2 cups milk

Preheat waffle iron. Mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl. In a small bowl combine bacon fat, eggs, butter, and milk. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir to combine. Stir in crumbled bacon and cook waffles according to your waffle irons specifications. Serve warm with maple syrup.

Casatiello (Salami and Cheese Bread)

I know I said I was going to celebrate my love of vegetables this month, but as I was fighting the mass of people worried about being snowed in and stocking up on groceries at Walmart I came to a realization. The realization happened as I was looking at some limp and obviously imported asparagus and was furthered by the snow that has been falling since yesterday afternoon. To celebrate my love of vegetables would go completely against eating locally, or seasonally. The only reason to celebrate vegetables in January would be to fight against winter weight gain. And although I'm eating vegetables, the vegetables aren't coming from my garden, which looks like this:

the tastiest and best quality vegetables I'm finding right now look like this.

So I think I'm going to postpone my vegetable celebration until I have some fresh vegetables that are in season and local.

Instead I bring you my fun project for passing the time while snowed in. Well, besides shoveling snow, which burns a ton of calories and I consider to be strength training as well. And I think it's possible that I may be the only dork out there that actually likes shoveling snow. But I digress. My fun project yesterday was Casatiello bread. I know, I said I probably wouldn't post bread until I start really playing with recipes. But I've made this bread twice already and I love it. It's so super delicious. Chunks of salami and pockets of cheese melted in the fairly rich brioche dough. The bread is much richer if you make it the way Peter Reinhart's recipe suggests. I personally felt that I could deal with less fat, so I cut some of it out.

The Brain and I traveled with the first loaf up to Michigan for Christmas Eve. The drive was pretty much freezing rain the entire time, until it changed to snow when we hit Detroit. And let me tell you the Detroit area roads were not good. There weren't any plows or salt trucks or anything. I think they've cut back. Anywho, the Brain and I traveled at 35mph the entire trip and the smells wafting from the warm loaf of Casatiello in the back seat were mighty tempting. Almost torturous. And the bread is so worth the wait. This is the type of bread that I have to cut myself a slice and then freeze the second loaf and put the rest in the fridge and walk out of the room to eat because if I were left alone with a loaf I don't want to know how much I would eat.

I'm totally loving my bread book Christmas present!

*update!* My bread will be included in this week's Yeastspotting over at Wild Yeast! Go check it out!

Casatiello

adapted from the Bread Bakers Apprentice

Sponge:

1/2 cup all purpose flour (bread flour would be better though)

1 Tbsp instant yeast

1 cup low fat buttermilk

Stir together the flour and yeast in a bowl. Whisk in the milk to make a pancake like batter. Cover with plastic wrap and ferment at room temperature for 1 hour. The sponge will bubble and should collapse when you tap the bowl.

Dough:

4 ounces hard salami

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (again you could use bread flour)

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup unsalted butter

7 oz. Parmesan cheese cut into chunks

While the sponge is fermenting, dice the salami into cubes and fry it until it gets a little crispy. Transfer the salami to drain on a paper towel saving the rendered salami fat.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the eggs and the sponge and mix with a paddle attachment on low speed for 1 minute. If there is any loose flour, add some additional buttermilk a little bit at a time to gather it into the dough.

Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

Divide the butter into 3 pieces. Add the salami fat to the dough mixing on medium speed until it is incorporated. Do the same thing with the butter, one piece at a time. The dough will be soft. Continue to mix with the paddle attachment for 4 minutes. Then switch to a dough hook and mix for 8 minutes more.

When the dough is smooth, knead in the salami pieces. Once those are evenly distributed, add the cheese chunks. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it ferment at room temperature for about 90 minutes or until it increases in size by about 150%.

Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it in 2 pieces. Form each piece into a boule or ball shape and place in lightly oiled 8-inch round cake pans. Mist the dough with spray oil and cover with a towel and let ferment for another 60 to 90 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and move the rack to the lower third of the oven. Bake the pans of bread for about 40 minutes. Rotate the pans halfway through to get an even golden brown crust. Bits of cheese will be oozing out.

When the bread is done, transfer it to a cooling rack and try to wait an hour for it to cool before slicing and eating it.

Mr. Reinhart's instructions are way more specific and I think the recipe as originally written is better than this somewhat lower fat way. I love The Bread Bakers Apprentice and really encourage people new to making bread like me and who want to learn more about how to make really good bread to buy the cookbook!

Maple Sweetened Buttermilk Cornbread

We have a pretty full fridge so I was nosing around figuring out what I could make to go with the ham steaks I made for dinner. I found some buttermilk and I have to admit I was torn between biscuits and cornbread. See, I got this really excellent cornbread cookbook a bit back and although I didn't used to think cornbread at every meal, I'm starting to consider it. So anyway I was leafing through this cornbread cookbook and I came across Crescent Dragonwagon's recipe for Vermont Maple-Sweetened Cornbread. It sounds really good. I didn't quite make it though. I really wanted to use that buttermilk and I didn't have the full amount of maple syrup. What I made turned out really good. With some salty ham steak and some peppery roasted potatoes the hint of maple comes through pretty nice.

This cornbread would be good for breakfast with some syrup, or for lunch with some beans or leftover ham, or just as a snack. I really liked it.

And I should mention that somewhere between my three tips to Michigan in a week and a half I received a wonderful package from London. I happen to love the sending packages by mail exchange kind of things I can sign up for as a blogger. Remember when Siri sent me that delicious black currant jam? Well Molly at Batter Splattered did another exchange, this time with cookies. I was lucky enough to have Rebecca in London (no blog that I know about) get my name. She sent a nice package full of some terrifically tasty cranberry and white chocolate biscotti that I have to admit I inhaled before I got a photo of. She also sent some caramels that went the way of the biscotti. Then she sent this here cute little mini Christmas pudding and some gingerbread cookies. To finish the whole thing off I got three handmade red, gold, and white star shaped ornaments. It was so exciting to get a little taste of so many different things!

I also got a little present in the mail from my bloggerganger. The other Shazaam if you will. She sent me a black cake. It's gone now too. I took it to my mom's who commented that it tastes like her fruitcake without the fruit. I think she nailed the description, but if you haven't had Mom's fruitcake, then you'll just have to be happy with the description: "Wow yummy!".

And now the cornbread recipe!

Maple Sweetened Buttermilk Cornbread

inspired by Crescent Dragonwagon and The Cornbread Gospels

Cooking Spray

1 cup all purpose white flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/4 cup maple syrup

3/4 cup low fat buttermilk

1/3 cup melted butter cooled

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray an 8 inch square pan and set aside.

Stir together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.

Whisk the eggs, syrup, buttermilk, and melted butter together in a smaller bowl.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients using as few strokes as possible.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Ciabatta (poolish version)

Today, I'm mighty thankful that there is an offshoot of the Cleveland Public Library in the county north of me and that I get to check books out of it. See it has a pretty extensive cookbook selection that serves as a happy compromise (most of the time) between me wanting to buy new cookbooks and the Brain wanting me not to buy new cookbooks all the time. Really. I haven't bought a new cookbook in months. Which is good, because really our cozy little house doesn't have room for more cookbooks. So this week I went up to the library and found a book that I've asked for for Christmas. Yes, I get my letter to Santa out WAY early.

The book I checked out is Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. So why did I check it out if I want it for Christmas? Well, because I have his Whole Grain Breads and frankly, it intimidates me and I was nervous that this book might be too difficult for me. Although the more bread I make, the less nervous I get. And I am now happy to report, I REALLY want this book for Christmas. Especially because I followed the advice of my absolute favorite alternative baker Speedbump Kitchen (I so love love love her blog and it's a tremendous resource for anyone dealing with an allergy) who told me that I can get instant yeast at GFS. Hooray! I now have instant yeast! (She also told me about Peter Reinhart's Pizza book and I want that too. And a pizza stone. Oh the list really could be endless...)

So the nice thing about The Bread Baker's Apprentice is that it's very good for semi-obsessive compulsive people like myself who happen also to be sort of science geeks and math nerds. The directions are very explicit. Well except for the sticky dough versus tacky dough comments. I really don't understand the difference. But I followed the directions and have eaten some mighty delicious Ciabatta bread. Okay, maybe I've eaten more than necessary. Maybe I should stop eating it so that the Brain can taste it.

And yes, it's a long recipe. And you might want to go check it out at your local library, or buy the book so that you can see the photos and learn in detail about what specifically to do.

Ciabbata Bread

from The Bread Baker's Apprentice

Poolish:

2 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour

1 1/2 cups water at room temperature

1/4 tsp instant yeast

Stir together flour, water, and yeast in a mixing bowl until all of the flour is hydrated. The dough should be soft and sticky and look like very thick pancake batter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and ferment at room temperature for 3 to 4 hours, or until the sponge becomes bubbly and foamy. Immediately refrigerate it. It will keep for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

Ciabatta:

3 1/4 cups poolish (all of the recipe previous)

3 cups unbleached bread flour

1 3/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp instant yeast

6 Tbsp water, lukewarm (between 90 and 100 degrees F.)

cornmeal for dusting

1. Remove poolish from refrigerator 1 hour before making the dough to take the chill off.

2. To make the dough, stir together the flour, salt, and yeast in a 4 quart mixing bowl. Add the poolish and the 6 Tbsp of water. Mix in a stand mixer on medium speed with the paddle attachment for 5 to 7 minutes, or as long as it takes to create a smooth, sticky dough. Switch to the dough hook for the final 2 minutes of mixing. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. You may need to add additional flour to firm up the dough enough to clear the sides of the bowl, but the dough should still be quite soft and sticky.

3. Sprinkle enough flour on the counter to make a bed about 8 inches square. Using a bowl scraper or spatula dipped in water, transfer the sticky dough to the bed of flour and dust the top liberally with flour patting the dough into a rectangle. Wait 2 minutes for the dough to relax. Coat your hands with flour and lift the dough from each end, stretching it to twice its size. Fold the dough over itself, letter style, to return it to a rectangular shape. Mist the top of the dough with spray oil, again dust with flour, and loosely cover with plastic wrap or a food grade plastic bag.

4. Let rest for 30 minutes. Stretch and fold the dough again the same as step 3; mist with spray oil, dust with flour, and cover. Allow the covered dough to ferment on the counter for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. It should swell but not necessarily double in size.

5. Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper, spraying with oil and dusting with cornmeal. Carefully remove the plastic wrap from the dough and proceed to shape the dough. Using a pastry scraper that has been dipped in water, divide the dough into 2 or 3 rectangles, taking care not to degas the dough. Sprinkle the dough generously with more flour and, using the scraper to get under the dough, gently lift each piece from the counter and then roll it on both sides in the loose flour to coat. Lay 2 loaves on one baking sheet and the third on the other baking sheet. Gently fold each piece of dough, from left to right, letter style into and oblong about 6 inches long.

6. Proof for 45 to 60 minutes at room temperature, or until the dough has noticeably swelled.

7. Prepare a hearth oven by placing an empty heavy duty pan on an upper rack and a baking stone or baking tiles on a lower rack. If you don't have a baking stone or tiles, you can bake on a baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

8. Generously dust a peel or the back of a sheet pan with cornmeal and very gently transfer the dough pieces to the peel or pan, using the pastry scraper if you need support. Lift the dough from each end and tug the dough out to a length of 9 to 12 inches. If the dough bulges too high in the middle, gently dimple it down with your fingertips to even out the height of the loaf. Slide the 2 doughs (or bake one at a time if you prefer) onto the baking stone (or bake directly on the sheet pan.) Pour 1 cup hot water into the steam pan and close the door. After 30 seconds, open the door, spray the side walls of the oven with water, and close the door. Repeat twice more at 30 second intervals. After the final spray, turn the oven setting to 450 degrees F. and bake for 10 minutes. Rotate the loaves 180 degrees, if necessary, foreven baking and continue baking for 5 to 10 minutes longer, or until done. The bread should register 205 degrees F. in the center and should be golden in color (but the flour streaks will also give it a dusty look). The loaves will feel quite hard and crusty at first but will soften as they cool.

9. Transfer the bread from the oven to a cooling rack and allow to cool for at least 45 minutes before slicing and serving.

Mini Pumpkin Muffins

I am thankful that fall is here and the holiday season is approaching. I am looking forward to the cookie baking, the caroling, the general feelings of goodwill, and gifts are fun too. But right now what's making me happy is the preparation for the season. See, the Brain and I made our semi-annual trip to Costco this weekend. We picked up a 50 pound bag of flour.

And loads of butter, chicken, broth, canned goods, a 3-pound bag of tortilla chips, and many many other foodstuffs. Oh and a 50 pound bag of sugar.

For a while, I delighted in my savvy bulk shopping. The savings on the 3 dozen eggs, 12 pounds of butter, the flour and the sugar alone came to more than $25. And I make enough Christmas cookies that I know the savings will be realized. As I was admiring the bounty of our Costco trip, it occurred to me that my mother was right. (She should be happy to hear that.) My kitchen needed some serious organizing. SO I spent the better part of Sunday and today making my kitchen cabinets work for me. Seriously. I pulled everything out of the cabinets and sorted according to "keep" "store elsewhere" and "must go" piles. The "store elsewhere" have been packed in plastic bins in the basement and the "must go" are probably going to stay in the garage until the Brain decides he's ready to let them go. The rest of the stuff went back into the cupboards. And now I have a very nicely organized kitchen.

See how shiny the counters are? And seriously my stove is probably 30 years old, but you can't tell anymore thanks to Mr. Magic Eraser.

My stepdad is thankful for these Mini Pumpkin Muffins. They really were delicious. He took the rest of them home with him. Which turned out to be a very good thing. I was having trouble resisting their pumpkiny goodness. And it was so easy just to pup them like candy.

Mini Pumpkin Muffins
adapted from Cooking Light

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2/3 cup canola oil
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 7 ingredients (through nutmeg) in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine canola oil, eggs, and pumpkin in a medium bowl; stir with a whisk until smooth. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

Spray mini muffin tins and scoop batter into cups. Bake until a toothpic inserted in one mini muffin comes out clean, about 20 minutes or so. Turn out onto rack to cool.

Honey Sesame Crescents

I'm thankful for those wonderful days in fall when the sky is blue and the sun is shining and it itsn't quite so cold outside. These days are perfect for some heavy duty house cleaning. So today I got all the windows washed. Now it's like that comercial on TV where the husband is snoozing in his easy chair and the wife washes all the windows and he wakes up and thinks he's in the wrong house. Of course, the problem arises when I moved the furniture to get to the window then I felt the need to dust. Or pull all the dead leaves off the plants. Or sweep, vaccuum and change the sheets. I will be especially thankful if my husband doesn't have a heart attack when he sees how clean the house is!

I'm also thankful on these bright and sunny falls days that I get to appreciate all the beauty of the colored leaves. And how nice it feels to have the leaves crunch underfoot.

The Dinner of Giving Thanks also had a lovely bread basket. I made the lavash crackers from that Daring Baker Challenge. This time I did manage not to eat them all by myself. Yay! I also made these really good Honey Sesame Crescents. I like crescent rolls and the idea of whole wheat sesame ones intrigued me. I thought they were really good and they weren't too difficult to make. I made them the day before though because they do take some rising time.

Honey Sesame Crescents

adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking

3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp lukewarm water

1/4 cup (3 oz.) honey

3 Tbsp (1.5 oz.) unsalted butter cut into 4 pieces

1 large egg, separated

1 1/2 tsp dark sesame oil

2 cups (6.75 oz.) whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 cups (6.375 oz.) unbleached all purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp salt

Heaping 1/2 cup (1 1/4 oz.) dried potato flakes

2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

1/3 cup sesame seeds

Heat 2 Tbsp water to 100°F and add the yeast. Allow to proof for 5 minutes. Mix the yeast mixture with the rest of the water, honey, butter, egg yolk, oil, flours, salt, and potato flakes by hand or in a mixer until you have a fairly stiff dough. Cover and allow the dough to rise until it's quite puffy, though probably not doubled about 1 to 2 hours.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Gently deflate the dough, and transfer it to a lightly greased work surface. Divide the dough into 3 pieces. Roll each piece into a 9-inch round, about 1/2 inch thick. Brush the rounds with the egg white mixed with 1 Tbsp water. Then sprinkle each round with a generous 1 Tbsp sesame seeds. Cut each round like a pie into 6 wedges. Roll up each wedge, beginning at the wide end, and then curve the ends in to form a crescent shaped roll.

Place the rolls on the prepared baking sheets. Brush them with more beaten egg white, and sprinkle with the remaining sesame seeds. Cover and let the rolls rise in a warm place until they've puffed a bit but are definitely not doubled in size, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. Don't let them rise too long; If they do, they'll uncurl in the oven. Toward the end of the rise, preheat the oven to 350°F.

Uncover and bake the rolls until they're a light golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove them from the oven. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Buns

Fall has definitely hit. It's chilly outside. And this morning there was a cold looking rain. I wasn't going outside. Actually, I was trapped inside all weekend with a nasty case of the flu. The Brain, I think, was worried I was going to permanently meld with the couch. Fortunately, yesterday I took a turn for the better. And by last night I was back to my normal self. I even was back to yelling at the TV during the Rachel Maddow Show. And rooting for Warren Sapp as he hustled across the dance floor. I admit it. I'm a Dancing With the Stars junkie.

So at some point this weekend while I lay on the couch staring at my bookshelves, which are full of cookbooks, I realized that I do really have a bunch of cookbooks that I haven't cooked from. One of them is Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads. Now this book was a birthday present (that I picked out for myself) last year. And I just haven't planned ahead enough to make any of the breads out of it. So there I was with the time to plan and no real desire to cook. Yes I was definitely sick. But the thing is, I have a loaf of Zingerman's Whole Wheat Farm Bread on my counter that I've been slowly working my way through. I really didn't need any more bread.

But I did find a recipe in this cookbook / bread making manual for some Whole Wheat Cinnamon Buns. Fabulous! The recipe reminds me a little bit of the Julia Child French Bread Recipe. It's very long. But in the margins is a nice little commentary that gives the bread profile (Enriched, medium soft dough; delayed fermentation method; commercial yeast) and tells how many days it will take to make (2) as well as a breakdown of how long each step will take. So I feel like the recipe really wants me to succeed. I still haven't found any instant yeast and am seriously thinking I may have to pick some up online, but earlier in the book there is a little commentary that says if you want to use active dry yeast, that's fine, just increase the amount by 25% and hydrate in 2 oz. of the lukewarm water (about 100°F.) for 2 to 5 minutes. So I tried to do that. But then I ended up adding a lot more flour because the final dough recipe called for more instant yeast, but no additional liquid. So I did what I figure I had to do and added 2 ounces of water. I sort of figured that if I added the yeast without any extra hydrating it wouldn't do anything. If anyone has a better idea I'm open to suggestions.

As a result, I did have more than the 8 to 10 buns that the recipe called for. I got 12. And I think they are really good. The Brain came home for lunch and he thought they were like eating whole wheat bread. But to be fair, he took an end piece that maybe I didn't get the cinnamon and sugar all the way to the end on. And he took it without frosting. I took a bite of mine and went back and made more frosting to dribble on top. They aren't as sweet as say those sickly sweet deep-fried ones at the grocery store, but I think they're better than them. And really, this is the kind of cinnamon roll I could eat for breakfast with a steaming hot cup of coffee. And best of all, although hard to believe, these are low fat (only about 2g each), high in fiber (over 7g each!) and they're made with whole wheat flour exclusively so you could even convince yourself they're sort of healthy.

Time for a healthy breakfast!

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Buns

closely adapted from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads

Soaker:

1 3/4 cups (8 ounces) whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp (.14 ounces) salt

3/4 cup (6 ounces) 1% milk

Mix all of the soaker ingredients together in a bowl for about 1 minute, until all of the flour is hydrated and the ingredients form a ball of dough.

Cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature overnight (12 to 24 hours).

Biga:

1 3/4 cups (8 ounces) whole wheat flour

1/4 tsp (heaping) active dry yeast

3 ounces 1% milk (a little more than 1/3 cup)

2 ounces lukewarm water (about 100°F./ 38°C.)

1 large egg slightly beaten

Hydrate the active dry yeast in the 2 ounces of water and let stand for 5 minutes.

Mix all of the Biga ingredients together in a bowl to form a ball of dough. Using wet hands, knead the dough in the bowl for 2 minutes to be sure all of the ingredients are evenly distributed and the flour is fully hydrated. The dough should feel very tacky. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes, then knead it again with wet hands for 1 minute. The dough will become smoother but still tacky.

Transfer the dough to a clean bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours and up to 3 days.

About 2 hours before mixing the final dough, remove the biga from the refrigerator to take off the chill. It will have risen slightly but need not have risen significantly in order to use it in the final dough.

Final Dough:

Use all soaker

Use all biga

7 Tbsp (2 oz.) whole wheat flour

5/8 tsp (.18 oz.) salt

3 3/8 tsp active dry yeast

2 ounces lukewarm (100°F./ 38°C.) water

3 Tbsp honey

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

6 Tbsp brown sugar (or more to taste)

1 Tbsp ground cinnamon (or more to taste)

Glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar

4 Tbsp 1% milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Hydrate the yeast in the 2 ounces of lukewarm water for 5 minutes.

Using a pastry scraper, chop the soaker and biga into 12 smaller pieces each (sprinkle some additional flour over the pre-doughs to keep the pieces from sticking back to each other.)

Put the pre-dough pieces in the bowl along with the 7 Tbsp flour, salt, yeast, honey, and butter. Mix on slow speed with the paddle attachment for 1 minute to bring the ingredients together into a ball. Switch to the dough hook if need be and mix on medium-low speed, occasionally scraping down the bowl, for 2 to 3 minutes, until the pre-doughs become cohesive and assimilated into each other. Add more flour as needed until the dough is soft and slightly sticky. (If you're using active dry yeast and extra water, you will need to add a bunch of flour).

Dust a work surface with flour, then roll the dough in the flour to coat. Knead by hand for 3 to 4 minutes, incorporating only as much extra flour as needed, until the dough feels soft and tacky, but not sticky. Form the dough into a ball and let it rest on the work surface for 5 minutes while you are preparing a clean, lightly oiled bowl.

Resume kneading the dough for 1 minute to strengthen the gluten and made any final four or water adjustments. The dough should have strength and pass the windowpane test, yet still feel soft, and very tacky. Form the dough into a ball and place it in the prepared bowl, rolling it to coat it with oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for approximately 45 to 60 minutes, until it is about 1 1/2 times it's original size.

When the dough has risen, dust the work surface with about 1 Tbsp of the extra flour and gently transfer the dough to the floured work surface with a plastic bowl scraper (try not to rip or tear the dough). Roll the dough out to a 9-inch square approximately 1/2 inch thick. (My square turned out to be more of a 12-inch square). Sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon sugar all over the surface (making sure to get the edges) and roll it up into a tight loaf. Slice the dough into 1 inch thick slices and lay them out, 1 inch apart on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Mist the top of the buns with pan spray, cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for approximately 45 to 60 minutes, until the buns are nearly double in size.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (240°C.) Place the pan on the middle shelf, lower the temperature to 350°F (177°C.) and bake for 15 minutes. Rotate the pan 180 degrees and continue baking for another 10 to 15 minutes. While the buns are baking mix together glaze ingredients. The buns will be a rich brown and very springy when poked in the center. If they still seem doughy, continue baking.

Remove the pan from the oven and cool the buns for 5 minutes before glazing.

I'm a real American and I'm voting for Barak Obama. Although I do have the urge to point out that all you big city people aren't real Americans. You bunch of phonies! hee hee!

Vegan Lavash Crackers and Herbal Oil dip

I tend to shy away from vegan recipes for a couple reasons. I am completely in love with butter. I try to eat it only in moderation, but I do eat it. Happily. I love the stuff. Another reason I shy away from vegan recipes is the usual abundance of soy recipes. While soy is a lovely food for most people, it makes me violently ill. It's not life threatening or anything, just gross. And painfull. And finally, those vegan recipes can be hard to find. I admire people who stick to the vegan lifestyle. I couldn't do it.

But the Daring Baker's Challenge this month was Lavash crackers that we made vegan. Some people even went the gluten free route, but I'm afraid I just went with vegan. Then we had to come up with a vegan dip. I went with a lovely herbal oil. It's almost like a tangy pesto. Overall these crackers were damass delicious and I'll be making them again.

That way the Brain can have some too.

I may have inhaled most of them.

Herbal Oil Dip

1 cup assorted herbs (I used parsley, marjoram, thyme, lemon thyme, oregano, mint, rosemary)

1 Tbsp capers

2 garlic cloves

1/4 cup olive oil

Throw everything in the food processor and pulse until desired consistency.

Don't forget to check out all the other Daring Baker's and this month's challenge is hosted by Natalie of Gluten a Go Go and Shel of Musings from the Fishbowl.

Greek Week Day 4: Envelope Bread

Ok, so you've all heard of pita bread. Or as the book spells it, Peta Bread. I grew up when peta/pita bread was ubiquitous. All the little girls in my brownie troop would show up for lunch with their pita pockets stuffed with egg salad or tuna salad. I of course being the middle kid of 6 would show up with my whatever-was-cheapest white bread stuffed with peanut butter and jelly. I envied those other little brownies with their pita pockets.

Interesting enough, when I was on my own and could buy my own pita bread, I grew tired of it pretty quick. There was one major design flaw. The bottoms would crack and all the fixings of my sandwiches would end up in a puddle on my plate. It's been a long time since I've had a pita pocket. Partly because they aren't too easy to find around here. So when I saw the recipe in The Complete Guide to Greek Cooking, I knew immediately I was going to give it a shot.

Now, homemade bread is always better than store bought bread, but the difference here is amazing! I did have to cut open the pocket, but the bottoms of the bread aren't cracking. The recipe calls for the bread to be wrapped immediately in foil after coming out of the oven to cool. I think this is what helps it stay so nice and soft. Mine has a little crust, but I couldn't sit there and wait for the bread to cool. I have poor impulse control sometimes. This bread is also slightly chewy, and has a great yeasty, salty flavor to it.

Greek cooking is apparently based on fresh local ingredients. That's why there's so much seafood and olive oil. I decided to follow along and stuffed my peta with some slices of cucumber, and slices of turnip from my garden. Hummus or Tahini would have been nice in there too. And I served it with an assortment of lettuces from my garden, dressed simply in lemon juice and olive oil and tossed with feta and fresh cracked black pepper. It's so good I don't really mind that it's super healthy.

Envelope Bread (Peta Bread)

from The Complete Book of Greek Cooking by The Recipe Club of Saint Paul's Greek Othodox Cathedral

1 package active dry yeast

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 cups warm water

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp sugar

In a mixing bowl, combine yeast with 1 1/2 cups of flour. Combine water, oil, salt, and sugar and add to yeast mixture. Beat for 1/2 minute with an electric mixer at low speed; then beat for 3 minutes at high speed. Work in remaining flour by hand to form a smooth and elastic dough. Put in a greased bowl in a warm spot, cover, and let rise for 45 minutes. Punch dough down, divide into 12 pieces, and roll each into a ball. Let rest for 10 minutes.Flatten each ball into a 5-inch circle. Place on a greased baking sheet; cover and let rest for 20 to 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Bake for 9 or 10 minutes, until puffed and lightly browned on bottom. Immediately wrap in foil and cool.

Russian Black Bread Rolls

Sundays have become bread baking days at our home. This morning, hungover from 2 1/2 beers, I again decided to let my bread machine do the kneading. How did I get hung over from 2 1/2 beers? I'm a total lightweight. That and the Brain and I were at a benefit and the parish priests were walking around in togas. It was quite an event. So this morning, I was feeling a little sluggish and lazy. Hooray for the bread machine!

These rolls turned out delicious. They are dark and heady and slightly sour in the way that rye breads get. I took the dough out of the bread machine and shaped it into 12 little balls. At some point I did pretend to channel Julia and that delicious French bread. But that was just me being silly. I let them rise for another 30 minutes while the oven preheated. While they were baking they filled the kitchen with a delicious meaty aroma. I have to admit also that I took the very first roll out of the oven and split it open and slathered it with butter and ate it on the spot. I'd like to say they'd be delicious to make a tuna fish sandwich out of, or to sop up juices from a hearty stew (because it is yet again cold and raining here), but frankly I'm not sure there will be any leftovers tomorrow.

Russian Black Bread Rolls

adapted from The All New Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook

2/3 cup water

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 Tbsp dark molasses

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp onion powder

2 tsp caraway seeds

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

1 1/2 tsp instant coffee granules

4 tsp unsweetened cocoa

2 cups bread flour

1 cup rye flour

1 package (2 1/4 tsp ) active dry yeast

Add ingredients into the bread machine according to your manufacturer's directions and set the bread machine to the dough setting (or knead by hand). Once the dough is ready, split into 12 equal pieces and form pieces into balls. Let rise for 30 minutes while oven is preheating at 350°. Once risen, spritz the rolls with water to encourage a nice crust. Then using a sharp knife cut a slit in the top of each roll. Bake for about 17 minutes or until when tapped the bottoms sound thumpy.

Multigrain Bread

Have you ever looked at the ingredient list for your standard loaf of bread? If you buy the $4 loaves of bread like Aunt Millie's light five grain that actually have whole grains and fiber it's not horrible. Although I'm curious what "DATEM" is and what exactly "resistant corn starch" is resistant to. If you have a husband like the Brain who is so sweet and actually goes out and buys a loaf of bread when you ask him to, but then doesn't really look at the label but goes for what's cheapest, then you may want to have a stiff drink before you look at the ingredients. He came back with wheat bread (just like I asked). But there was less than 1 gram of fiber per slice. And there were wild and bizarre things in this bread. Things like raisin juice. How exactly do you juice a raisin? And soy fiber which is mighty common in bread actually and makes me think of things like the stalk of the soybean plant. And then there's high fructose corn syrup and the chemicals I can't pronounce.

This has been a long time coming, because I'm a bread junkie and because I'm really trying to get back to eating more natural foods, well less chemicals anyway. We don't have a bakery in our county, or I think the next county up, that makes anything close to artisanal bread and bolstered by the success of the Julia Child French Bread, I've decided to make my own bread. I have to admit though, I sort of cheated on this one. I have a bread machine, which I love. And I have The All-New Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook, which I also love. Mostly what I like to do is make the dough in the bread machine and then transfer it to a loaf pan and bake it in the oven. It has something to do with being OCD I'm sure, but the idea of bread in those funny bread machine loaves freaks me out. Seriously. It's creepy. The bread machine is a great convenience though. I know that I can throw all the ingredients in it and then find something else to do for 2 hours. Like try to walk around the block. And I can come back and have perfectly made dough. Yummy dough when I use recipes from this book though.

So expect more bread in the future. Don't get excited, I'm not turning into Breadchick Mary, who is awesome and has tons of bread on her site. But on occasion I'll be sharing a loaf or two. I may even get daring and make the sourdough starter Mary posted about. And yeah, they won't all be bread machine recipes. But I promise not to use any resistant corn starch, or soy fiber. Or raisin juice.

And if you're curious, I have decided that the whole scariness of the hard plastic water bottles and chemicals leaching into my water has sufficiently scared me into recycling my beloved Life is Good water bottle and splurging on this beautiful aluminum SIGG bottle. I know, I know, aluminum and Alzheimer's. But this Swiss beauty has a "ground breaking interior liner" that is "100% effective against leaching". Even the paint on the outside of the bottle has been tested. And, though the mouth is much smaller on this bottle, it's surprisingly comfortable to drink from. Hooray!

Multigrain Bread

adapted from the All-New Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook

makes 2 loaves (16 servings)

1 1/4 cup water

1 egg

3 Tbsp olive oil

2 tsp salt

4 Tbsp honey

1/3 cup flax seeds

3 Tbsp yellow cornmeal

3 Tbsp rolled oats

3 cups bread flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

3 Tbsp rye flour

1 package (2 1/4 tsp) dry yeast

All ingredients should be at room temperature. Liquid ingredients should be approximately 80 degrees F. Add ingredients in the order specified in your bread machine owner's manual.

Select dough option.

Remove loaf from bread machine after it's second rise. Pat the dough into a rectangle and cut into 2 pieces. Fold the top third of the dough down onto the rectangle. Fold the bottom third up onto remaining dough. Flip the dough so the seam side is on your lightly floured work surface. Tuck the ends of the rectangle under so it will fit in a standard loaf pan. Repeat with the other rectangle. (I only made one loaf and as you can see it's a little on the ridiculously huge side of life.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cover the loaves and set in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes. Place the loaves in the oven and bake for 35 minutes. The loaves should be golden brown and have a hollow thumpy sound when tapped on the bottom. Place the loaves on a rack to cool.

Approximate nutritional analysis per serving: 154 calories, 5g protein, 27g carbohydrates, 2g fiber, 3g fat, 21mg cholesterol, 29mg potassium, 274 mg sodium.

LiveSTRONG Day 2008

I am lucky. I may be on pseudo-house arrest. I may not be able to get into my pantry. I may have the world's squeakiest brace and sound like a demented version of the tin man. I may wake up sometimes in the middle of the night with a weird pain in my knee. And I may have resolved that it's possible that this isn't my last knee surgery. But I am lucky. This is all temporary. Eventually, and it's a certainty, I will be able to ride my bicycle again. I will be able to play and jump and maybe run (I've never been very good at running). I will heal one hundred percent. I don't have cancer. My body isn't mutinying against me. I am lucky.

My mom's friend Pam wasn't so lucky. She had lung cancer and finally succumbed to it two years ago. Pam had her flaws like everyone else, but she was a pretty cool lady. She taught school, but I really have no idea what grade and what she taught. I know she loved to swim. But mostly I remember driving her to the hospital when she wasn't allowed to drive anymore and listening to her talk about how when she got better she was going to have adventures. She had this attitude up until the very end. It was pretty inspiring really. And Pam's gift to me was showing me what would happen if I didn't quit smoking. That sounds so Machiavellian of me, but it's true.

The fear of lung cancer sometimes keeps me up at night. I used to smoke. I used to smoke a LOT. Some people will tell you that I survived in college on Diet Coke and cigarettes. And pretty much I did. Cigarettes became a way for me to stop myself from saying things I would regret. Cigarettes allowed me to pause and think before I spoke. Cigarettes allowed me to step outside and take a deep breathe when I got completely stressed out. And yes, I'm not from a generation where I can claim that I didn't know they were bad for me. I didn't care that I smelled bad. I didn't care that I couldn't smell anything. I was only mildly perturbed that my teeth were starting to yellow and that I'd probably get those scary lines around my lips. I had smoked for 15 years. Half of my life. And I loved it.

Those horrible photos of blackened lungs didn't do anything to break the grip that cigarettes had on me. I was addicted. What finally did it was watching Pam. Was knowing how Pam had all these adventures left in her that she wouldn't get to take. I didn't know Pam too well. But when Pam needed rides to the hospital, I didn't feel I could say no. After all, I have had far more than my share of people driving me around because I couldn't do it myself. And in the end, I was on the receiving end of these trips. Because I had a new appreciation for Pam and her unconquerable spirit. And I will never be a smoker again. How lucky I am that I had Pam in my life!

Winosandfoodies is having a Taste of Yellow blogging event where bloggers make yellow food to show their support for LiveSTRONG Day 2008. I spent a long long time thinking of a good food to make for this event. I wanted to make something that not only was yellow, but was also appropriate. For example, Saveur magazine had a recipe on how to make butter. Butter is yellow, but it doesn't seem right for a we can beat cancer type event. It's more of a oh hell let's all get fat kind of an event food. (If there is such an event please let me know!)

So I did loads of thinking and found this recipe for delicious corn muffins studded with cranberries and walnuts. Both of which have HUGE cancer fighting properties. According to work done by Catherine Neto at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and her colleagues, cranberries have chemicals called proanthocyanidins, which originally were thought to help prevent urinary tract infections. They have found that they inhibited the growth of human lung, colon and leukemia cells in culture without affecting healthy cells. I think that's pretty promising and you can read the whole article here. Walnuts contain an antioxidant compound called ellagic acid that supports the immune system and appears to have several anticancer properties and you can read all about walnuts here. So I think these little cancer fighting yellow muffins are perfect for this event. That and they're damn tasty too!

There will be a complete roundup of entries on May 13th here. Make sure you check it out. Last year there were 149 entries and it's been accepted by the Lance Armstrong Foundation as an official LiveSTRONG Day event. And if you'd like to see the rules for the photo contest or how to submit an entry check them out here.

Dried Cranberry Black Walnut Corn Muffins

from The Cornbread Gospels

Vegetable oil cooking spray

1 cup stone ground yellow cornmeal

1 cup unbleached white flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp white sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup black walnuts, toasted and chopped

1 egg

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1/3 cup grape seed oil (or other mild vegetable oil)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray 18 muffin cups with oil. Set aside

Combine the cornmeal, flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Toss them together well, breaking up any lumps of brown sugar with your fingers. Set aside.

Combine the dried cranberries and walnuts in a small bowl. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the dry cornmeal mixture over them and toss well. Set aside.

Whisk together the egg, buttermilk and oil in a small bowl.

Pour the egg mixture into the cornmeal mixture and, working with as few strokes as possible, combine the two. When they are moistened but not quite incorporated and the batter is still far from smooth, stir in the meal dusted cranberries and nuts.

Scoop the batter into the prepared cups and bake until the muffins are golden brown, slightly crusty around the edges and test clean with a toothpick, about 15 minutes.

Dairy Hollow Cornbread

At the end of last month, shortly before my surgery I was contacted by Crescent Dragonwagon, the author of the Dairy Hollow Soup and Bread cookbook. That happens to be the lovely cookbook that the beer soup came from. It turns out that Mrs. Dragonwagon happens to have written several other cookbooks including a fairly new one called the Cornbread Gospels. She asked if I would like a copy to review.

I have a small confession to make here. Although I said "sure send me a copy" I am definitely not what one would call an expert on cornbread. Prior to receiving the book, I'd never actually made cornbread except out of the blue and white box mix. My mom has always just used the Jiffy mix too. So has my grandma. As it turns out this book is excellent for me. Unfortunately it arrived the day after surgery.

So there I was in a Percocet induced fog excited to get a new cookbook, but really unable to concentrate on what it said. As the fog cleared, mostly due to my stubborn resistance to taking painkillers, I started to read the cookbook. This was also something new for me, but Mrs. Dragonwagon had so much interesting information packed into this cookbook. There is all kinds of information on the differences between "Yankee" and "Southern" cornbread. There's information about cornbreads around the world. There's information about what to do with leftover cornbread. There's basically a TON of information in this cookbook.

My wonderful mother in law, was over at our house everyday to help change my bandages and cook me lunch and usually dinner for the Brain and I. She's very nurturing. I think I can say I have the best mother in law around. Anyhow, back to the subject at hand, she had seen the book arrive and we had several talks about cornbread, which she called Johnny cake. (Johnny cake information is also in this book.) So one night she borrowed the book (OK I sent it over with the Brain) and she made me Countryside Cornsticks. They were delicious. You'll have to take my word on this because at that point in my recovery I couldn't have found my camera if it was sitting in my lap. But they were delicious and now I was fully intrigued.

Last Sunday, the Brain and I momentarily ran out of food being delivered by neighbor ladies and friends and we decided that I would pull a chair into the kitchen and read off the recipe for the beer beans.(Beans are an important food to eat when you've been taking pain killers. Even I couldn't go cold turkey on the painkillers. I don't think I should extrapolate here, but trust me beans are important when taking painkillers.) So there I sat watching my husband cook for me. It was very sexy. I would have taken a photo, but he was in his drawers and that's only something I get to see. I did however get the brilliant idea that we should make something out of The Cornbread Gospels. He got the brilliant idea we should make cookies.

We compromised. While he ran to the store for buttermilk and a refrigerator full of nitrite rich meats, I mixed up these cookies and got them ready for the oven. But then when he got home I carefully mixed up the dough for the Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread. Well, apparently I wasn't too careful because I mixed the baking soda in with the dry ingredients before I realized that it was supposed to go in the buttermilk. So I got it all mixed and the Brain handled the cast iron skillet part. What was the result? A fabulously crumbly delicious cornbread. Crescent Dragonwagon was right. I'm not going back to the Jiffy mix.

This recipe wasn't complicated. It really came together in a flash. Besides, it was great soaking up juices from the beans. And it was great leftover and reheated for about 15 seconds in the microwave with some cube steak a lady friend dropped off. And it was great soaking up the juices from the beans the same lady dropped off. And it was great cold with a thick slice of butter after an early morning physical therapy session. And now I've run out.

Fortunately for me, there are over 200 recipes in this cookbook. I've had 2 so I'd say I realistically have 99% of the recipes left to try. And try more of these recipes I will. I'm only having a hard time narrowing down the choice on which one to do next!

Sorry the photos are blurry, I hadn't quite gotten myself off the Vicodin by that point.

Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread

from The Cornbread Gospels

Vegetable oil cooking spray

1 cup unbleached white flour

1 cup stone ground yellow cornmeal

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

2 Tbsp sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup mild vegetable oil

2 Tbsp butter

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spray a 10 inch cast-iron skillet with oil and set aside.

2. Sift together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl.

3. In a smaller bowl, stir the baking soda into the buttermilk. Whisk in the sugar, egg, and the 1/4 cup oil.

4. Put the prepared skillet over medium heat, add the butter, and heat until the butter melts and is just starting to sizzle. Tilt the pan to coat the sides and bottom.

5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and combine them quickly, using as few strokes as possible. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake the cornbread until it is golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let cook for a few moments, and slice into wedges to serve.

Rye Beer Bread

Emboldened by my success with the Julia Child French Bread, I decided to give another yeast bread a try. I wanted to try one from the beautiful King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook that my wonderful mother-in-law gave me, but first I have to find some instant yeast. So I played around on the Internet and found this recipe for Beer Rye Bread from Sunset.

It's really good. The taste of the beer is subtle, but it's there. I used Bass Ale because it was the closest thing to a Belgium style ale as we've got. I think if I had a good Belgian ale, this bread would be just that more delicious. As always quality ingredients make quality products. But please, it's not like I used the Michelob Ultra in the beer fridge. That would make an interesting beer bread for sure.

The texture of this bread is dramatically different than the Julia Child French Bread. Where Julia's bread was sticky as dough and air bubbles consistently popped up on the surface. This dough was stiff. I had a hard time telling for sure when it was rising even. Julia's bread has such lovely holes and a light and chewy texture. This bread is dense and has a thick and hearty texture. Please don't misunderstand me though. This bread would be ideal slathered with butter accompanying these beans, or with no butter and a hearty soup. It would also be excellent with a slab of onion and some liverwurst.

Call me nutty, but I think I just got hit over the head with my German heritage. I don't mind, I'm munching away on my bread.

Beer Rye Bread

from Sunset

1 package active dry yeast

1 (12oz) bottle Belgian style ale

2 Tbsp light brown sugar

1/4 cup melted butter

1 1/2 Tbsp caraway seeds

1/4 cup molasses (not blackstrap)

1 Tbsp coarse Kosher salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups rye flour

Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp. water)

In a mixing bowl, combine yeast with 1/2 cup warm water. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir in beer, brown sugar,butter, caraway seeds, molasses, 2 tsp salt, and 1 cup of each flour. Beat well, then gradually add remaining flours until dough is stiff and no longer sticky.

Turn dough out on a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Put dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to grease the top and bottom. Cover, put in a warm draft-free place, and let rise until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Punch dough down, divide in half, and shape halves into balls. Put balls on a large baking sheet, cover, and let rise until almost doubled, 45 to 60 minutes. Brush loaves with egg wash and sprinkle each with 1/2 tsp salt. Cut a cross in the top of each loaf with a very sharp knife.

Bake at 375° for 35 to 40 minutes, spraying occasionally with a water mister, until crusts are well browned and loaves make a hollow sound when tapped. Transfer loaves to rack and let cool.

Makes 2 loaves, 12 slices per loaf.

Per slice: Calories 144 (17% from fat); Fat 2.7g (sat 1.3g); Protein 4.1g; Cholesterol 14mg; Sodium 271mg; Fiber 3.2g; Carbohydrate 27g